Method of preservation by refrigeration.



1. MORAWSKI.

METHOD OF PRESERVATION .BY REFRIGERATION. APPLICATION FILED MAY 24,|915.

Patented July 17, 1917.

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(1n uanto J. MORAWSKI. METHOD 0E PRESERVATION BY REFRIGERATION.

. APPLICATION FILED MAY 24| i916.

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Wilma liaE'rirfoE or rEEsEEvA'rroE lEY EEEEIGEEAEIOE.

massant.

Specification of Letters Patent.

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Application led May 24, 1916. Serial No. 99,677.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, JAN MoRAwsEI, subject of the German Emperor,residingatNo. 34:3 B. Mitre street, Buenos Aires, Argentina,

. have invented. certain new and useful lmrovements in a Method ofPreservation by efrigeration, of which the following is a specification.

ln accordance with the known methods of preservation by refrigeration,the air entirely confined within the preserving chamber or cold storageroom, is subjected to' refrigeration. In this case, it is quiteimpossible to conveniently control the temperature,

so that meat and other eatables, not capable of resisting exceedinglylow temperatures will freeze and in consequence lose part of theirvalue, or else, the preserving a1r received by the materials, isnot-sufficiently cold and will cause the same to decompose. .The main,"drawback, however, of this preserving method is that within therefrigeratf ing chamber 0r cold storage room, the air grows excessivelymoist and moldy and in consequence promotes the propagation of bacteriaand spores. other preserving method has been proposed in which the airwithin the-preserving chambers is renewed or replaced byy fresh air 9@which has been conveniently treated; not-` withstanding, -a suflicientregulation of the temperature is not obtained even in this case, whilethe consumption of refrigerating medium is enormous, as such fresh ornew air from outside must always be cooled, and must also be disinfectedand freed from moisture each time before use; it must Valso beconsidered that the air from `outside always 4carries with it bacteriaand spores,

t@ which, if not sufliciently destroyed, will render worsev theconditions of the preserving chamber.

Thepresent invention proposes a complete change andV tot thisend aprocess has been @5 devised in which the air, after being conned Withinthe cold storage room or pre'- serving chamber is continually led anew,in forced circulation, through or over devices in which it is cooled,disinfected, deodorized'1 5@ filtered and freed from moisture.4 As'it isalways the same air which is subjected to treatment, its temperaturewill thus successively be lowered and it will not each time consumeagain the same amount of refr1gerating medium as'would be the case iffresh For this reason, an`

b, designed to receive a dynamo 'o with its air were introduced eachtime from outside; besides, by regulating the speed at which the air ismade to circulate or by interrupting the circulation of said air atsuitable intervals, the temperature may be exactly adjusted andmaintained within a predetermined range of degrees. What has been statedwith regard to the refrigerating medium, also applies to the medium fordrying and disinfecting, theconsumption of which' 65 will be much lessand the use of the latter will cease entirely as soon as the air hasbecome saturated therewith. A featureof particular importance lin thiscase isV the simultaneous deodorization, so that the materials which arebeing preserved may be kept free from odors, notwithstanding theconstant use of the same air; this is of much importance when differentkinds of eatables are to be preserved in the same room or container, 75such as cheese and meat, for instance, as one product will notcommunicate its odor to the other. lThe supply of oxygen in the closedair circuit may be obtained by the introduction of peroxid of hydrogenor other similar material into the refrigerating apparatus.

The manner of performing the process will be clearly understood from theaccom# panying drawing,l when considered inconnection with the followingdescription.

In said drawing:

Figure 41 is a longitudinal'vertical section of a railway cold storagevan or car, constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a'longitudinal view of a disinfect- 90 ing'apparatus based onthe same principles.

Fig. 3 is a modification of Fig. 2.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 1, the car therein shown comprises abody part or casing a, the double walls of which are suitably andsufficiently insulated against the outer air by means of a vlayer ofco'rk com pound, or of air chambers from which the air has beenevacuated, or the like. rlhe car is also provided with a front room orspace accessory fittings, to be driven by a 4naphtha motor or otherengine, or even by the. axle of the wheels of the car, as may be'desired. The refrigerating chamber; proper ,is filled with ice or otherrefrigerating material e which is introduced thereinto from the roof,through a sort of conical opening adapted to be closed by a cover d;salt may eventually be added to the ice or the like, in order to 110collecting tank g, whence any excess will pass oil by the tubes g2 tothe second water tank or reservoir g1, from which the water may bedischarged when necessary by means of a spout or spouts l1., the tank gbelng similarly provided witha spout or drain, as shown.

When now the fan or exhauster 'i is operated by means of the'motor cdriven by the dynamo, it will suck in the air ,contained Within. thepreserving room Z and impel it through the tube m, into the Water tankg1 whereby the air will be washed and' subjected to a preliminarycooling, whereupon it passes by the tubes g2 to the water tank orreservoir g and thence to thefporous layer f. After being theresubjected to a thorough preliminary cooling andy purification, the airpasses through the numerous interstices formed in the refrigeratingmaterial e and enters by openings arranged at the` top of the partition-into the air shaft n where part of the moisture isdispersed; thence,

the air passes up through another sieve bot- X tom and through the drylayer (o), formed of wood charcoal or other porous material where theair will be freed from moisture, even up to 10 per cent., if sorequired. The air leaves -this compartment through openings or outletsformed at the upper part of the next following partition, and then flowseither directly into the preserving chamber Z, as in Fig. V1,'or througha second air shaft in Fig. 2. After successively traveling over thiscircuit, the air will be rendered dry and i cold, within a veryshorttime and tothe degrec desired, and will at the same -time be Y entirelyfreed from germs and odors.

For the purpose of increasing the aforesald effects, 1t may 1n certaincases be convement to rarefy and even exhaust the inner air of the caror van. Onthe 'one hand, such exhaustion allows of obtaining lowertemperatures with less consumption of refrigerating material, and on theother, the liability of development of bacteria and'spores is moreeiiiciently prevented and finally, the

o. rareication' ofthe air facilitates the access to the germs ofputrefaction contained Within the air bubbles confined, forv instance,

within ,the meat, as by rarefying the air inthe preserving room, the aircontained inthe interior of said bubbles is also extracted and subjectedto treatment, and after eliminating the vacuum, air duly .treated willagain penetrate into the interstices formerly occupied by saidair-bubbles. For this purpose, in the main pressure pipe m, a checkvalve g and a discharge valve r are arranged. When this latter is openedand the former is closed, the fan forces the inner air outward. An airpump, a water jet pump or similar device may lsuitably be provided inorder to assist the fan in this operation.

The pressure of` the air in the inner space' is indicated by thepressure gage t and the inner temperature may be read from thethermometer s, shown in Figs. 3 and 2 respectively. This thermometer"may be connected by means of suitable leads to the switch of the motor,so that during operation, when the temperature has reached the desiredminimum degree, the motor will be cut olf and together with it the fan,and when during the following interval of rest the temperature has risento a predetermined I frigerating cells and the like, for which purposeit will only be necessary to introduce the correspondin changes in thedetails of construction. `so, a similar kind of apparatus might beconstructed, comprising in its interior the above described deviceswhich might then be connected to separate cold storage or refrigeratingchambers, in order to exhaust the air therefrom, subject the vsaine totreatment and again discharge it `1 nt'o said chambers. Such apparatusmight also be connected to or placed in communication with suitablyarranged Ventilating or aerating ducts, as well as with existing airheating ducts, for the purpose of effecting ventilation, or duringsummer, the cooling of rooms. 0n receptacles, also on glass collinscontaining corpses to be preserved, two screw capped openings may forinstance be arranged,by which the inner air is submitted to treatment bymeans of a separate apparatus, in the manner set forth, and thereuponexhausted and burnt, after which the openings on the coiiin orothrreceptacle are tightly closed.

It will be evident, without further explanations, that the novel processas well as the apparatus described, may -loeV used not only forpreserving but also for. disinfecting purposes. In many cases,disinfection is,.-v already carried out in the apparatus as above setforth." In order to enhance the disinfecting effects, in particularcases, more encrgetic disinfecting means are to be employed.

For disinfecting purposes, in some cases the use of a more simplifiedmethod is recommended. according to which the destruc-. tion ofpertinacious and tough lived bacteria and spores is realized by means ofa most intense cold with the aggregate action of a vacuum.

For this latter purpose, a refrigerating apparatus as shown by way ofexample in F ig. 3. is used. A metallic casing a contains fourconcentric hollow spaces or chambers. The outermost chamber, c, formsthe 1nsulating space. from which the air may be evacuated when desired,by means of the connecting branch rl. rll`he next following hollow spaceor chamber e with the connecting branch g communicates through openingsc2 with the third hollow space or chamber f and its connecting branch12,. When liquefied gaseous fluid is introduced by branch z. into thechamber f', the vapors thereof Will pass through the chamber f and intochamber c by way of openings e2 and will escape from the latter chamberby branch g3, eX- tracting heat from the storage room around which theyHow. If then the air is still further exhausted through the branch z"from the inner chamber or space Z, closed by means of a: strong doublecover u and eventually divided into compartments,- said air having beenpreviously agitated for the purpose of thoroughly cooling and freeingfrom moisture the goods to be disinfectefhthe atmosphere in the storagecham-v ber will be rendered even more intolerable-v for any livingbacteria which might still be contained therein and will destroy thesame after a short time. If necessary, the gaseous fluid (air, helium orthe like) may be introduced directly under pressure into the storagechamber. By means of this novel system, the materials to be refrigeratedor disinfected, according to the case, will be left completely free frombacteria, that is to say, they will be -disinfected by cold, eX-traction of moisture and ulterior extraction of air. The elimination ofthe use of strong disinfectants, liable to attack and deteriorate thematerials to be disinfected according to the known methods, involves aconsiderable advantage. The short period of time required by the use ofthis novel process, should also be taken into account, as compared withthe known processes.

I declare that what I claim as new and desire to secure by LettersPatent, is:

l. The herein described process of preserving and disinfecting byrefrigeration, which consists substantially in that the air which lillsthe preserving or disinfecting chamber, as the case may be, passesrepeatedly, with a forced circulatory movement, through devices in whichit is cooled, disinfected, deodorized, filtered and dried, substantiallyas described.

2. The hereindescribed process of preserving and disinfecting byrefrigeration which consists substantially in rarefying the atmosphereof the preserving or disinfecting chamber, in repeatedly circulating acurrent of air funden. gforced draft through said chamber, and insubjecting the said current of air While in circulation to cooling,disinfecting, deodorizing, filtering and drying treatments.

3. The herein-described process of preserving and disinfecting byrefrigeration which consists substantially in circulating a current ofair under forced draft through the preserving or disinfecting chamber,in subjecting the said current of air While in circulation to cooling,disinfecting, deodorizing, filtering and drying treatments, and inintermittently interrupting the circulation. 4. The herein-describedapparatus for preserving and disinfecting by refrigeration, comprising,in combination, means for' circulating a current of air under forceddraft through a refrigerating chamber, and means for automaticallymaintaining the temperature of saidchamber as controlled by suchcirculation constantly within predetermined maximum and minimum limits.5. The herein-described apparatus for preservin and disinfecting byrefrigeration, comprising, in combination, a device for circulating acurrent of air under forced draft through a refrigerating chamber, amotor for driving said device provided with a controller, and aregulating device connected to operate said controller so as to main'tain 'the temperature of said chamber as controlled by such circulationconstantly within predetermined maximum and minimum limits.

In testimony whereofllaflix my signature. y A JAN MORAWSKI.

